


Into the Middle Distance

by Rynfinity



Series: Vignettes - Love and Damnation [2]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Kid Loki, Kid Loki and Kid Thor, Kid Thor, Mental Health Issues, Protective Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 17:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4109746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynfinity/pseuds/Rynfinity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a few minutes the screams taper off.  What easily could have passed for someone getting murdered before just sounds like Loki, crying.</p>
<p>Thor tiptoes to the top of the stairs and listens carefully; the TV in the den is definitely on.  He goes back to the door and turns the knob, pulling hard against it to keep the thing quiet.  "Hey," he says, once he’s inside and the door is latched behind him.  "I'll help.  If you just get it over with we can still go."</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>This takes place in Babes!Verse, when Thor is nine-ish. It's told from Thor's point of view.</p>
<p>You don't really have to have read the rest of the Babes!verse stories to get something out of this one, although some of the tags may only apply if you have read the rest of it previously.</p>
<p>This one isn't fluffy, regardless of how much you know about the rest of the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Middle Distance

**Author's Note:**

> Being a kid is hard, sometimes.

"No!" Loki's voice is painfully shrill. "I'm not going to, and you can't make me."

Thor flops backwards to sprawl across the seat cushion. Someday soon his heels – and not just his dangling toes - will finally touch the floor. He's outgrown all his pants this season. They should go to his brother, but Loki is a stick and dad - Thor hurries to correct his _baby_ brother any time Loki slips and says _daddy_ , because they’re both too old for that kind of talk now - says there isn't a belt made that will keep those things on Loki's bony little ass.

Thor doesn't say _ass_ , at least not in the house. His brother sometimes does; it invariably gets Loki swatted.

It often seems almost like his brother _wants_ to get swatted, between the potty mouth and the dug-in heels and the paint-blistering tantrums kids half Loki's age would be ashamed of. And the biting. And the crying, like the world has ended and there’s nothing left but Loki, crawling in the wreckage all alone.

The one time Thor'd tried pointing that out, of course, _he'd_ been the one who'd gotten the spanking. It wasn't fair. He hadn't said so. He's not stupid, no matter what Loki always tells him.

"No one's trying to make you," their mom says over his brother's noise. She sounds like she’s just about had it, yet again. "But I guess you don't want to go to the zoo very badly."

That does it. Loki lets loose with a fresh round of shrieking Thor's positive the kids in the little park all the way down at the other end of the street can hear.

"Noooo," his brother wails. Something hits the wall, hard; the bedroom door rattles. "I don't want to practice. I don't want to play. I hate it. I hate _this_. I hate you. I HATE EVERYBODY!"

Thor flings an arm over his eyes the way dad sometimes does when Loki goes batshit crazy. He counts silently backwards from twenty, with nothing but his lips and tongue moving.

Sure enough: "I can't talk to you when you're like this, Loki," their mom says. Thor hears the door hinges squeak. "You know that. I'm going to leave now. Goodbye," she adds, pulling the door shut behind her with a soft click.

Thor sits up in a hurry. Whatever's going on, he's not getting sucked into it. Not this time. He smiles at his mother as she comes around the corner. "Hi," he says cheerfully, as though the glass-shattering howling in the background isn't happening.

She wipes her forehead on her shoulder. Doing battle with Loki is sweaty work; even Thor's no stranger to that. "I'm sorry, honey," she says. "I don't think your brother is up to the zoo today."

"Aww," Thor says. He really is disappointed - not surprised, not anymore, but disappointed - so it's not hard to act it. "Bummer. I really wanted to see the sea lions."

His mom sighs. "I know," she says. She sounds as sad as he’s pretending to be, or maybe is, and Thor thinks they should just stuff Loki in the car and go anyway. "We'll do it another time, okay," she promises.

Thor pouts. "But what if he does practice," he counters. "There's still time."

She grimaces. "Oh, trust me… there won't be."

~

After a few minutes the screams taper off. What easily could have passed for someone getting murdered before just sounds like Loki, crying. Thor tiptoes to the top of the stairs and listens carefully; the TV in the den is definitely on. He goes back to the door and turns the knob, pulling hard against it to keep the thing quiet. "Hey," he says, once he’s inside and the door is latched behind him. "I'll help. If you just get it over with we can still go."

The closest pillow - the one under which most of his brother is hidden - erupts into a burst of wet sobs. "I can't," Loki says, voice muffled. "I suck. I'm horrible. I ruin everything. Go away," the bobbing pillow orders when Thor tries to argue. "Just leave me here to alone, to die. Then everyone else can be- be happy."

“Stop it,” Thor tells his brother, not loudly. “Just sit up and get it done for once and mom will lay off you.”

“I ca-a-a-a-n’t,” Loki wails, instantly back to full volume. “Would you _listen_? I suck! I’m hope-pe-pe-less.”

“Thor!” Their mother’s voice comes up the stairs. “Come out of there and leave your brother alone.” There’s a long, quiet pause, in which Loki snuffles and Thor cringes. 

“Don’t,” she calls up to them, “make me call your father.”

~

She’s right. Again. Loki does finally practice his viola – and he doesn’t sound half bad once he stops crying – but it’s 3:42 PM when he puts the thing back in its case.

The zoo gates close at 4:00. Even this time of day, it takes them 20 minutes to get there.

~

Loki _swears_ he doesn’t do this stuff on purpose. On good days, Thor almost believes him.

~

Saturday, it turns out, is a good day.

Thor lies in bed with his eyes closed, listening to the sound of Loki playing and pretending his own stomach isn’t busy growling. Dad had come home early last night, cheerful for once and not smelling like the bottle return machine. They’d had a nice dinner, together, as a family. No one had yelled.

No one had cried.

There hadn’t been any hitting.

When the last notes fade, Thor slides out of bed and pulls on a pair of wrinkled shorts and a t-shirt. “Ready for breakfast,” he asks from his brother’s doorway. “’’Cos I’m starving. Rawr,” he growls, stalking towards Loki with clawed hands and a lashing, imaginary tail. “And then maybe mom will actually take us to the zoo for a change.”

Loki is, and their mom does. “Your father has to work,” she explains, when Thor asks why the four of them can’t go together. “But we’ll have fun.” It’s her most famous chorus. “You’ll see.”

~

They’re so early, they practically have the grounds to themselves. Thor doesn’t know what got into his brother this morning, but he sure knows not to ask about it.

Loki laces their fingers together and holds his hand as they walk past the snow leopards. It’s as if they were still little boys.

“Look,” Loki breathes, eyes wide and babyish. Thor looks. His brother is pointing into the farthest cage corner. “His _toes_ ”

Thor giggles. He can play this game too. “They look like poops,” he says, smiling.

“Poops in fur coats,” Loki whispers. Thor can smell apple candy.

He elbows his brother in the ribs. “Weirdo,” he teases.

Loki beams like it’s the world’s biggest compliment. “I am,” he says proudly, “and you love it.” Honestly, Thor isn’t sure he does. It’s an awful lot better, though, than _I hate yous_ or the _just let me dies_. As they turn away from the leopards and head on down the sidewalk, he drapes an arm around his brother’s thin shoulders.

“ _There_ you two are,” their mom exclaims. She hurries to meet them. “I should have known Loki would never stray far from those big kitties.”

_She’s right_ , Thor thinks. She should have.


End file.
